There is an on-going need in electronics to provide increased functionality in increasingly smaller devices. This desire, referred to as miniaturization, has dominated research efforts associated with components, mounting techniques and the like. While most of the effort has been focused on decreasing the footprint of electronic components on a circuit board more recent efforts have focused on stacking components thereby occupying the space above and below the board instead of occupying surface area of the board.
Stacked multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 9,472,342, to McConnell et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, wherein leadless multi-layer ceramic capacitors are formed in stacks where two or more MLCC's are bonded together by their terminations using transient liquid phase sintering (TLPS) adhesives. The resulting stack can be surface mounted by techniques known in the art, such as soldering, since the TLPS does not reflow at the soldering temperature.
While advantageous, the leadless stacks provide capacitors in electrical parallel only and therefore the applications are somewhat limited. There are many applications requiring electronic components serially connected. Serially connected components can be achieved by bonding the terminals of the respective components end-to-end, rather than in a stack, however this increases the space required for mounting which is contrary to the overwhelming desire for miniaturization.
There is an ongoing necessity for a package comprising multiple components, which can be serially connected, while minimizing the footprint of the package on the circuit board. Provided herein is an improved package for multiple components, preferably including at least one MLCC, wherein at least some of the electronic components in the package are serially connected.